Intel is recalling a portion of the newly released chip set due to a manufacturing error that can cause a PC to fail to boot up or to freeze. Intel has discovered a glitch involving some of the I/O controllers in the company’s new "Grantsdale" chip set, which can cause a PC to fail to boot up or to freeze. Between 100,000 and 200,000 chip sets are affected. Intel had polled its customers for the lot numbers of the affected chips, which were sent to manufacturers before the chip set’s official launch on Monday. Samples of the lots are being sent to Intel for further testing.

The glitch is somewhat complicated. Normally, when a chip is being fabricated, an insulating layer of film is deposited to electrically isolate the chip. That film is normally removed from the die pad area, where the chip interfaces with the pins that connect it to the outside world. In this case, the thin film on a pad area was only partially removed, causing the real-time clock circuitry to be susceptible to excessive leakage. Almost none of it is in the end-user community. All of the PCs that are shipping now are free from the glitch. Intel is recalling a portion of the newly released chip set due to a manufacturing error that can cause a PC to fail to boot up or to freeze. Intel has discovered a glitch involving some of the I/O controllers in the company’s new "Grantsdale" chip set, which can cause a PC to fail to boot up or to freeze. Between 100,000 and 200,000 chip sets are affected. Intel had polled its customers for the lot numbers of the affected chips, which were sent to manufacturers before the chip set’s official launch on Monday. Samples of the lots are being sent to Intel for further testing.

The glitch is somewhat complicated. Normally, when a chip is being fabricated, an insulating layer of film is deposited to electrically isolate the chip. That film is normally removed from the die pad area, where the chip interfaces with the pins that connect it to the outside world. In this case, the thin film on a pad area was only partially removed, causing the real-time clock circuitry to be susceptible to excessive leakage. Almost none of it is in the end-user community. All of the PCs that are shipping now are free from the glitch.